Improving compressive strength of low calcium fly ash geopolymer concrete with alccofine

Abstract

Geopolymer concrete is environmentally friendly and could be considered as a construction material to promote the sustainable development. In this paper fly ash based geopolymer concretes with different percentages of alccofine were made by mixing sodium hydroxide and sodium silicate as an alkaline activator and cured at ambient as well as heat environment in an electric oven at 90°C. Effects of various parameters such as the percentage of alccofine, curing temperature, a period of curing, fly ash content, was studied on compressive strength as well as workability of geopolymer concrete. The study concludes that the presence of alccofine improves the properties of geopolymer concrete during a fresh and hardened state of concrete. Geopolymer concrete in the presence of alccofine can be used for the general purpose of concrete as required compressive strength can be achieved even at ambient temperature. The 28 days compressive strength of 73 MPa, when cured at 90-degree Celsius, confirmed that it is also very suitable for precast concrete components.